Pawn Sacrifice
by AFincorporated
Summary: Dria Lane was left on the doorstep of a home for orphaned children as a newbornbaby. She doesn't know anything, not even her real name or where she's from. But she does know one thing: she's a werewolf, and she puts those around her in danger. Her best friend Lucy helps her control it, but when Lucy's murdered SHIELD finally takes notice, and this time Dria has nowhere left to run.
1. The baby

**AN: hi, this is a story by F (not A, because this is a shared account). I don't own anyone that you recognize from the movies (Fury, the Avengers, etc.). Please fav or follow or review this story if you like it, I really appreciate that.**

 **ALSO: I KNOW THAT THE AVENGERS DON'T COME INTO THE FIRST COUPLE CHAPTERS, BUT THEY DO LATER SO JUST BEAR WITH ME, HERE.**

 _You've probably heard that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. This is not always true. Actually it rarely is. But for me, it was true. I never meant to hurt anybody, never meant to get involved, but here I am. Because sometimes you get started on the road to hell without even meaning to do it. Sometimes all it takes is for a man with an eye patch to show up and ask you a question, or for you to lose a game of chess. And sometimes it's not even that. But you're probably getting bored and considering putting this down, and the sooner I get started the sooner I'll be done writing this stupid book. So let's get going._

 _November eighteenth, 2000_

 _Saint Helena Hospital_

The woman sat in the hospital bed, holding a sleeping baby in her arms. In the chair next to the bed was a tall man. The man and woman smiled at the baby as she slept. The baby was young, but already had wisps of blond hair like her mother, and her father's soft round features. And both parents knew that when she opened her eyes they would be the same dark hazel as her mother's. She was swaddled in a pink blanket, and was resting peacefully in her mother's arms.

"Our poor girl." The man said, reaching out and brushing the baby's cheek with the back of his finger. "Our poor baby."

"She'll have to be so strong." The woman said, smiling teary-eyed at her daughter. "She'll face so much pain through her life. Everyone will want to stop her from living and being happy the way she should."

"Yes, they will. But she'll be safer this way." The man said, squeezing the woman's free hand. "She'll be safer far away from us, without knowing what the beast inside of her is. Without knowing what she comes from."

"I know she will." The woman was near tears. "She'll figure it out on her own one day, but this is best for her. Poor baby."

"What should we name her?" The man asked, trying to cheer her up.

"I want to name her Audrey, after my mother." The woman said. "But she'll be safer if she's not called that. What should we call her?"

"Dria. She'll be known as Dria." The man said. "Audrey Dria Lane. The wolf girl."

"Our child." The woman started to cry. "Our _daughter_."

"I know," The man rubbed her back. "I know. She'll be okay. She can do this. She'll be our strong baby girl. But we have to let her go so she can have her best chance at happiness. So she can become the beautiful brave wolf-girl I know she'll be. Dria can do this."

"I know she can." The woman nodded. "Okay, take her now. It's time." The man nodded, and the woman leaned down to kiss the sleeping baby on the forehead. "I love you Dria. Remember that."

The man reached out and scooped the baby out of his wife's arms. He gave his newborn baby daughter a watery smile and said, "I love you too, Dria. It's a big bad world out there, and it's going to try to stop you whenever it can, so you'll have to be strong. You'll have to be so so strong. Good luck, Dria."

The man left the room, carrying the baby. The woman watched her husband carry her daughter away, and let out a long sad sigh. "Goodbye, my darling girl. Good luck."

That night, a blond newborn baby girl with dark hazel eyes, swaddled in pink blankets, was found on the doorstep of the McCartney Home For Girls. She was found the next morning, a white paper card with the words, **Dria Lane** printed on it in black. The people who ran the home carried the newborn baby inside, cooing as she cried for her parents that she didn't remember and never would.

Dria Lane grew up there, living with no memory of her parents or knowing where she was from, or even that her name was Audrey. She made friends there, but life doesn't like letting people be happy. Life doesn't like to let people just live.

Dria Lane was cursed. Is cursed.

My name is Dria Lane, and this is my story.

 _September second, 2010_

 _McCartney Home For Girls_

"Dria!" Lucy burst through my bedroom door, a huge grin on her face, her brown hair in pigtails. "Dria, guess what!"

"What?" I asked, looking up from my math homework. "What's up, Lu?" Lucy Bond is my best friend. Her name isn't actually Lucy Bond-we don't know what it is. She's an orphan, just the way all the girls here in the McCartney home are. She was brought by the hospital when she was a toddler, after her parents died in a car crash. We were best friends from the start. We named her Lucy after the youngest girl in the Narnia series, because she looks just like the book Lucy does-long dark brown hair and dark brown eyes.

"I'm getting adopted!" She squealed. I felt my heart sink. I tried to smile, but Lucy can see right through my lies. "What's wrong? I thought you'd be happy."

"I am, really," I said. "But…. will I get to see you again when you go? And I'm not adopted…. I'll still always be here."

"Of course you'll still see me!" Lucy sat down next to me on the thing creaky cot, and smiled. "We're best friends. And you'll get adopted one day, too. I know you will." That was just how Lucy was-always positive, and kind, and friendly. In most ways, we were polar opposites. She was a loyal jokester, and I was the stubborn troublemaker with a big secret.

I shook my head. "No, I won't. Nobody wants to adopt a monster." I looked back down at my homework, and at the doodles in the margins. Wolves, with dark eyes and snarls on their faces. Why had I drawn those? I crumpled up the page and tossed it into the trash.

Lucy winced. "You aren't a monster, Dria. You have an amazing gift. It's not the same thing. And anyone who tells you otherwise is just being dumb."

I gave my best friend a small smile, her big brown eyes meeting my own hazel ones. "Lucy, are your new parents nice?" She nodded with a big grin. "Then I'm happy for you."

"Thanks, pal." She hugged me. "You can come visit whenever you want, I promise. They live here in the city, so we won't be far apart. And you have to call me Lucy Greene now, that's my new name." She giggled a little, and I nodded. "Friends forever?" She stuck out her hand in a fist. I grinned and we fist-bumped, then stacked up our fists and cracked up laughing before we could finish our secret handshake.

"Friends forever."

 _July 25, 2010_

 _Abandoned warehouse_

"What are we looking for, anyway?" Lucy Greene groaned. She pedaled her bike along behind me, looking bored, her long brown hair in a fishtail braid and her plaid skirt making it hard for her to ride. "Can't we just hide in the basement the way we always do? Mom and Dad will expect me home soon, anyway."

"No, we need somewhere new." I said, stopping and frowning at the buildings around us. "The wolf is getting stronger." Lucy stopped next to me and put a hand on my shoulder, pulling me around to face her. Her kind face was creased with a worried frown, and her brown eyes fixed on mine, prying into my thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

"As I get older and stronger, so does he. He's getting more powerful and he's just as angry as always. I'm barely keeping him in check when I get angry, and he never shuts up. The full moon is tomorrow, and I don't think I'll be able to control him anymore. You know the moon brings him his strength."

"Yes, I know. I'm your best friend, I know all this stuff. The wolf gets more powerful when you feel a strong negative emotion, mostly anger. And that he gets more powerful when the moon is full, but we don't know why. I get that. But if he's that strong, will you lose control tomorrow night, when the moon comes out?"

I nodded. "Maybe."

"Okay, so what do we do?"

I could tell from the hoarse undertone in her voice, and the way she was biting the inside of her left cheek, and fixing her eyes on the horizon, that she was scared but she didn't want to show it. She was trying to keep a brave face on for me, which I appreciated.

"We chain me up the night of the full moon." Lucy didn't seem to like that plan, but I started to pedal my bike again before she could argue. I stopped again in front of a tall abandoned warehouse, and poked my head inside. It was two stories tall, but missing the floor of the second story. There was nothing here but dust and old planks. "This is perfect. C'mon." Lucy followed me in. I stopped in the exact middle of the warehouse floor and pulled two iron stakes out of my backpack. Lucy pedaled in behind me, panting, and her eyes widened when she saw the stakes.

"Why did you bring those?"

I didn't answer, instead finding a crowbar in a pile of boards in the corner. I used it to pry up the floorboards in the middle of the room, revealing the dirt. Lucy handed me the stakes, and the hammer I had brought, reading my mind again. It took an hour between the two of us to drive the stakes into the ground, and then attach a chain to each of them, with a handcuff attached to the end of each chain. The chains were only about six feet long, so that there was no chance of the wolf getting onto the street and hurting someone.

"This should work." I sighed finally. Lucy glanced at her watch.

"Mom and Dad will be worried. I have to go, and you'll be in trouble at the home for being out late."

"Yeah, but its worth it to not hurt anybody." I said, following Lucy to the door.

"Right. Meet back here tomorrow, sunset?" Lucy said, swinging one leg over her bike.

"Um, no. You're not coming. It'll be dangerous." I said, crossing my arms over my battered dark blue hoodie. That was another difference between Lucy and I-she wore white shirts and plaid skirts, I wore jeans and hoodies.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? I'm your best friend. There's no way I'm not coming. You'll need help with this, and I'm the only one who knows. Friends forever, right?"

"Friends forever." We did our secret handshake, and biked away in opposite directions. She went towards her home, and I went back to the McCartney home for girls, and the lonely attic bedroom where I slept because I had nightmares that scared the other kids if I slept in the dorms.

Lucy and I weren't similar in any way, but we were drawn together almost magnetically. We were best friends, and that was the way it was supposed to be. There was no Lucy without Dria, and no Dria without Lucy.

We came back the next day for the full moon, and Lucy chained me up and stayed up with me all night. It hurt terribly, when the wolf took over, like my soul was being pulled from my body, and my head pounded as I fought against him. Like everything that made me _me_ was pulled out of my head and I was replaced with someone else. My head pounded as I battled him.

But Lucy told me stories and jokes and sang songs, and did everything she could to help me remain sane. She read me my favorite parts from her copy of _The Chronicles of Narnia_ , and the football the stats and the comics from the newspaper with different voices for the characters. I focused on her voice, and that helped me keep going.

We didn't know then that we would be back to that warehouse every month for the full moon for the next four years. We didn't know that the wolf would become a bigger part of our life then either of us would want. We didn't know, couldn't know, that our time together was limited. We were young and naive, and we didn't know that all things end.

Until the horrible night when everything changed.

 **Thanks for reading this story! Please leave a review in the handy-dandy box below, or click on the thingy that lets you fav or follow this story (or me!). I know that the avengers haven't come in yet, but they will probably chapters 2 or 3, believe me.**


	2. Chess games

**Hi everybody! F here again. If you've read the first chapter and liked it enough to keep reading, then I totally love you. Seriously, you're great. Please review, fav, or follow if you like this story, and that means everybody. Seriously, if you read this far then you must like it so you have no excuses not to, people. Seriously. Anyway, I don't own the avengers or SHIELD. Thanks for reading!**

 **I KNOW THE AVENGERS HAVEN'T COME IN YET, BUT THEY DO NEXT CHAPTER I PROMISE. I DON'T LIE. EXCEPT SOMETIMES I DO, BUT THIS ISN'T ONE OF THOSE TIMES. SERIOUSLY.**

 _August 10, 2014_

 _(Four years later)_

 _Greene family apartment_

"Bye, Dria." Lucy said, walking me to the door. "See you at school," She added with a wink, and I winked back. That night was the full moon, and I already had a terrible headache. The wolf howls in my mind echoing and pounding.

We were fourteen and this was the day it ended.

"Thanks for coming, Dri."

"Lucy?" Lucy's mom Ms. Greene poked her head out of the kitchen. "Could I have a quick word with Dria?" Lucy and I nodded and she retreated to her room. "Dria, you know we think of you as part of the family, right?"

I was surprised by the question, but I nodded. "Good. Because you really are, and I wanted to be sure that you knew that. And you'll always have a home here. You're like our second daughter." Ms. Greene smiled, and I smiled back. "Are you sure you don't want to stay for dinner, tonight? It's spaghetti with meatballs, your favorite." I was tempted, but it was full moon night, and I couldn't. Besides, I had told the "den mother" at the McCartney home that I would be back by seven.

I glanced out the window. The sun wasn't quite setting yet.

"Thank you, Ms. Greene. But I have homework."

"Of course. Just remember that you have a home here, Dria." She said, pulling her head back into the kitchen. Lucy came back out of her room to say goodbye, with a questioning look on her face, but I just shook my head.

Looking back, I should have never met with Lucy that night. I should have swallowed my pride and told Ms. Greene everything. I should have done a million things that I didn't do.

We were fourteen and this was the day it ended.

 _July 10, 2014_

 _Abandoned warehouse_

It was almost sunset when Lucy arrived. She grinned at me, her brown hair in a ponytail. Honey-colored eyes shone from under her bangs, and her kind face and warm smile cheered me up right away. She wore a dark blue hoodie, black tank top, and a plaid skirt with boots. "Hi, Lu." I said.

"Hi, Dria. Should we get started?" I nodded, and Lucy got to work. She handcuffed the chains to my wrists, and put one key in her pocket and the other handcuff key on top of a pile of boards, far out of my reach when I was chained. She pulled out her battered flashlight and book from her green backpack, studded with pins for bands and the summer reading challenge, and flipped through the pages until she found where we had stopped last month.

"Where were we, again? The part with Mr. and ?" I nodded. She lifted the book to read so that I could see the title on the glossy cover. _The Chronicles of Narnia_ , where the other girls and I had found Lucy's name when we were kids. I remembered one of the older girl's shouting, " _She looks like a Lucy!"_ and I remembered just knowing that Lucy was the right name.

Lucy started to read. The sun was sinking below the horizon, meaning it was almost time. I tensed all the muscles in my body. It hurt. It always hurt.

The wolf is always in my head. Always has been and probably always will be. He's pretty annoying, and he feeds on my fears and angers and hates. He's everything bad about me, except also a bloodthirsty nutjob that's in my head trying to take over my body and turn me into a wolf. Whenever I'm too angry or upset I lose control, and I turn into a wolf and he is in charge. It happens on full moons, too. When I'm in control, I can switch back and forth between wolf and human at will, and still be in control. But it's hard, and it hurts.

The wolf is always there, and he's always coming for me.

That night was the night it ended.

The full moon came out, and I was somewhere else.

I was standing on the top of a mountain, on a platform made of polished marble. Only the clouds could be seen below the platform. I should have been freezing, but I wasn't. I wore a white dress, and padded across the platform in bare feet. The only thing on the platform was a polished wood table with a chess board set on it, and two chairs. The white pawn had already moved. _What the heck,_ I thought. _This is just a dream. It couldn't hurt._ I sat down opposite the white pieces and moved a black pawn forward.

Immediately, a shadowy figure appeared in the chair across from me. I jumped and banged my knees on the underside of the table, and it leered at me. When it moved, the smoke and shadow moved with it, floating in the air but still wrapped around it. When it reached forward to move a white piece, the shadow cleared from its face for a moment and I saw the things face.

It had the face of a wolf, with red eyes and a cruel snarl.

"You!" I screamed, stumbling away from it. "You're the wolf!"

"Dear child, calm down." It sighed, and its voice was surprisingly melodic and velvety. "I am not here to hurt you. I want to help you, and I need your help as well."

"What do you mean?" I asked nervously.

"I am the wolf. And you and I are bonded. If I am ever to take physical form, I need your body to do it. I need you in order to be able to live. And I am hungry, child. So hungry. I have been waiting inside you since the day you were born."

"Why wait?" I demanded, trying to keep the tremble out of my voice. "Why not just take me over now and go eat a whole crowd's worth of torches and pitchforks?"

The wolf thing laughed. "Because I am not strong enough. I am a creature of darkness, child. I need there to be darkness in you as well for me to take form without the help of the full moon. The moon gives me strength, and with it I can take control. Without it, only darkness can carry me. _Your_ darkness. Your anger and fear are my only food, for so long."

I nervously sat down at the chessboard across from the monster. "You need me."

"Yes, child. I hope that one day we might work together to keep this body alive, but for the foreseeable future we will be in battle to take it for our own. Lucky you, you've had it for years. I only get one night a month."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." I said sarcastically. The wolf chuckled.

"It is your move, child."

"Huh?"

"The chess game. Make your move." I looked down at the board and moved my knight out without really thinking about it. "Yes, good." The wolf moved a bishop forward. "Child, we are in a battle. A battle of good and evil. A battle of light and dark." I moved a pawn, and the wolf reached for the bishop again. "A battle that only one may win. I hope the best man wins. And by that, I mean me."

It knocked over my pawn with its knight, and a searing pain went through my whole body. I fell the the floor, shaking with spasms and struggling to breath, but the wolf was still talking.

"Oh, sorry, dear. This will be quite unpleasant for you. But know that I liked her, and would have spared her if I could have. She was a good influence, but she helped you keep the darkness at bay, and I couldn't have that. Also, know that I won fair and square. One pawn to me, child. And not the last."

Then I was floating off the platform, still in agony, and into the clouds. The dream faded to blackness.

No, this wasn't a dark dream. This was real life again, but Lucy's flashlight was on the floor a few feet from me. I stumbled to my feet and picked it up. Wait, how had I moved away from the stakes? I glanced behind me and saw the stakes and chains dragging along behind my wrists. The wolf had pulled them right out of the ground.

My pulse quickened. Lucy. Where was Lucy? What had happened?

I tried not to hyperventilate and swung the flashlight beam around at the floor desperately, searching for my best friend. Lucy Bond. Lucy Greene. I pictured her chocolate eyes and caring smile, and my eyes stung. I couldn't breath. I had to find her.

"Lucy? Lucy!" She wasn't here. Why wasn't she here?

And then I saw her. Lying cold on the ground, eyes and mouth wide in shock. Eyes glazed, staring at me, but not seeing. She looked so calm and peaceful. Blood stained her clothes. It slithered across the floor towards me like a snake. I looked down at my own hands.

They were covered in blood.

Being able to turn into a wolf is not a gift. It is a curse. My curse.

The wolf is still in my head. He will always be. I can fight him. Sometimes I win, and sometimes he wins. But it was a long time after Lucy that I lost again. And I don't even always get to know when the battle is coming. Sometimes it's a chess game, or I'll dream that I'm in a gladiator arena, or any of a dozen other places. And Lucy, the brown-eyed warm-smiled girl that wore plaid skirts and loved strawberry ice cream and hated PE class-that girl, my best friend, will never lose her place in my heart.

And it's my fault she's dead. You can't deny that. I lost a pawn to the wolf, but Lucy wasn't a pawn. She never was.

My name is Dria Lane. And this is my story.

 **Sorry this one's so sad, but I had to write it. Also, I KNOW THE AVENGERS AREN'T IN YET BUT THEY WILL COME IN IN THE NEXT CHAPTER I SWEAR. Thanks for reading, please review or favorite me or this story.**


	3. Werewolf

**Hi! Me again! Thanks for reading so much of this story, and yes, this is the chapter in which you see that I am not in fact a liar and the Avengers really are part of this story. Please fav, review, or follow. I don't own the Avengers (though once I've taken over the world, I will).**

 _August twenty-third, 2015_

 _(one year later)_

 _Sugarville Maximum-security Juvenile Detention Facility_

The door of my cell was pulled open and a shaft of light from the hall burst in. I raised one hand so shield my eyes from the sudden burst of sunlight. "Dria Lane?" A gravelly voice came from the doorway. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, and I saw one of the guards standing there, holding up a pair of handcuffs.

"Yeah, I'm coming." I stood up and let him handcuff me.

He led me out of my cell and down the hallway, not bothering to close my cell door behind me. We walked up a flight of stairs and through a door, up another flight of stairs to the roof. I winced a bit from the bright sunlight, but I could see a black man with an eyepatch and a black trenchcoat standing with his back to me near the edge of the roof. The guard turned and closed the roof door behind me, leaving me alone with the eye patch man without another word.

"Um, excuse me? Who are you and why am I here?" I called the man with the eye patch.

"I'm director Nick Fury, of SHIELD. You are here because I have a couple of questions for you and you are going to answer them honestly."

"Can I call you eye patch?" He glared at me. "Okay, then. Dria Lane. Nice to meet you eye patch man. Bring on the questions." He was still glaring at me, but I would later figure out that he glared at everybody all the time.

"Where were you the night of July 10th, last year?"

"The police already asked me these questions. That's why I'm in here. Just check my file."

"I like to make my own assumptions."

"Okay. I was in the abandoned car manufacturing warehouse, downtown."

"Who were you there with?"

"Lucy Greene."

"Was anyone else there with you?"

"No." It wasn't a full lie. Nobody that wasn't sharing my body was there, so I didn't think it was a lie to mention the wolf. "It was just me and Lucy."

"Did you kill her?" I didn't answer that one. I just shrugged a bit, but he wasn't taking that for an answer. "I'm going to need an answer, Lane. Did you kill her?" I nodded not wanting to look at him. I fixed my eyes on a cloud at the horizon instead.

"Alright." He frowned and paused for a second before continuing. "Your time in juvie is up, you are free to return to the McCarthey home." He turned to go.

"Wait!" He stopped and turned, with a look on his face like, _better be good, kid._ "Why are you here? Why did you want to know?"

"Dria Lane," He said, and now there was almost a challenge in his face. "Are you sure you want to know?"

 _September second, 2015_

 _Avengers Tower_

 _[JARVIS security footage]_

This part of the story I wasn't around for, I only found out about later. So I watched some of JARVIS's security tapes to be able to tell this part of the story right, and trust me it's important so you should be glad I did.

The Avengers were all sitting around, doing their normal Avengers thing. They walked into the main area, and saw a tall black man with an eyepatch and trench coat-Fury.

"About time you popped in here. I was looking forward to my dramatic entrance a half hour ago."

"Our apologies, sir." Steve said, and there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "What is it this time?"

"Pardon?" Fury asked.

"No offense, but every time you come back it means either something really good or really bad. Though we've yet to see something good." Clint added the last sentence a bit quieter.

"Well I've brought you some news, but I'm not sure if it's good or bad. That will depend on you." The Avengers glanced at each other. That didn't sound very good.

"Take a look at this." Fury reached into his trench coat and pulled out a manilla folder, tossing it onto the coffee table. Romanoff picked it up and flipped it open on the table so that the other could all see what was inside. There was a couple of school pictures of a teenage girl, probably around fourteen or fifteen, with a kind round face, dark hazel eyes, and wavy blond hair. You could tell from the tension in her shoulders and the way her smile was a bit forced, that this was not a happy kid. There was also a picture of the blond girl with a shorter teen with brown hair and honey eyes in a plaid skirt, both of them grinning and giving each other bunny ears. There was a stack of papers as well-an arrest warrant for "Dria Lane", and a death certificate for a "Lucy Greene". The other papers were all certificates of mental health or interviews with teachers and neighbors. There was even a calendar with full moons circled in red, and little notes written on the full-moon days, things like, _fistfight at school_ or _was found sneaking out at night_.

"What is all this?" Romanoff asked with a glance up at Fury. He frowned a bit.

"That is a murder mystery, Romanoff. And I want the Avengers to solve it."

They still looked confused.

Fury sighed. "Fine, I'll explain. Dria Lane, this girl-" he pointed to a picture of the blond teenager. "Was left at the McCartney home for girls as a newborn. She had nothing on her but a blanket and her name on a scrap of paper. She grew up there, and never quite seemed normal to the matron, but didn't get in much trouble. Except one day a month, when she would become irritable and angry. These days weren't the same, but Ms. McCartney, who runs the home, eventually found a pattern-they were all the days of a full moon. And Dria Lane was never in her bed on nights when the full moon was in the sky. Ms. McCartney said nothing of it, knowing that even a mention of a suspicion would get the young girl ridiculed by the other children. So she kept her suspicions to herself, until SHIELD came asking about it. Dria Lane's best friend was Lucy Greene, another young orphan at the home. Lucy was adopted about a year before her gruesome murder."

The Avengers glanced at each other. "You're not suggesting that this kid, Dria Lane, killed her own best friend?" Steve asked, hoping that wasn't what Fury way saying.

"Let me finish." Fury said. "The only person with Greene when she died was Lane, and Lane has openly admitted to killing the other girl. But the coroner's report is what finally got us interested. The coroner said that the cause of death for Lucy Greene was an animal attack. A wolf."

"But-there's no way that Dria Lane could have done it then, right? Why are we still on this? The kids clear." Stark said. "Some wolf escaped from the zoo."

"But if a wolf killed Lucy Greene, then why did Dria Lane say she did it? And why was Dria Lane never where she was supposed to be on the night of the full moon?" Fury asked. "I know this sounds a bit weird, but if it really was Dria Lane but the coroner was right about an animal attack-then what?

"I want you to investigate this. Because if Dria Lane really is what we suspect she is, then everyone around her might be in danger."

 **Thanks for reading, as always! Please leave a review or be really nice and favorite/follow me or this story.**

 **SEE YA NEXT TIME!**


	4. Caught me

**Hello, my tiny little reading minions! If you've read this far you must like my story, and therefore I like you. I do not own the Avengers or SHIELD. Please leave a review (because I seriously love those, and helpful criticism is appreciated) or favorite/follow this story. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for:**

 _September fourth, 2015_

 _McCartney Home For Girls_

 _[Re-written from Steve Rogers' case file]_

Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, was in the main office of the McCartney Home For Girls, waiting for Ms. McCartney. Girl's of all ages passed the open door of the office, some of them looking in and elbowing their friends when they recognized him, but none stopping.

Ms. McCartney finally showed up, and closed her office door behind her. She was a large woman, and black spectacles perched on her nose. But she had a kind face and dark eyes, and her black hair was tucked under a red bandanna. She wore a suit that had clearly been re-tailored several times and was out of fashion, but there was a motherly aura around her that you couldn't miss.

"Mr. Rogers?" She said questioning, one eyebrow raised slightly, appraising him.

"Yes, thank you for meeting with me." Steve shook her hand as she sat down opposite him, the desk between them. "I had a couple of questions about one of the girls here, Dria Lane?"

Ms. McCartney's face darkened right away. "I have already answered enough questions about that poor girl, and I don't think there's anything you could ask me that would gain anything I have not already told the police."

"I realize that, but I'm not asking about the murder. I was wondering about the fact that she's never here at the full moon?"

"Oh, yes." Ms. McCartney leaned back in her chair, looking thoughtful. "Never figured out how she gets out of the house. She must be going by the window, but she's in the attic, four stories up."

"Why's she in the attic?"

"Oh, the poor girl has nightmares. Sometimes it gets so bad that she wakes up screaming, scared the other girls half to death when she slept in the dorms with them, so we moved her up to the attic room by herself so that the other girls might get a peaceful night's sleep for once."

"What are her nightmares about?" Steve frowned.

"I don't know. I've asked her of course, but she doesn't like to talk about them. Though sometimes she talks in her sleep, it's hard to make out the words. I can't make sense of them. Here, I write them down when I hear them. I've got them here."

Ms. McCartney handed Rogers a piece of paper with different words and phrases written on it.

Steve tucked the list in a pocket. "I think that's everything, Ms. McCartney. Thank you for the help."

"Of course. Anything I can do to help you help her. Poor girl, she's never been the same since Lucy passed, and with all the other children thinking she killed her….well, she's lonely, and still mourning, even though that was over a year ago. And of course she was in jail for almost a year after Lucy died, poor girl. I hope you can help her. She's such a good girl, she used to be so smart and funny, but there's always been something sad about her. Like a secret she has to bear alone."

 _September fourth, 2015_

 _Avengers tower_

 _[JARVIS security footage]_

"Is that all she told you?" Stark asked, annoyed, sipping a glass of wine. "That she had nightmares and she wasn't liked by the other kids?"

"Yeah…." Steve said, frowning at the list of things Ms. McCartney had heard Dria Lane say in her sleep. "Come look at this list, though, it's odd." The list read:

 _ **Check-I am not an animal-Checkmate!...damn.-You will not win this-I won't let you again-Please...not...me instead-I am not like you!-Check-You can't (didn't hear the last part)-Checkmate… damn, again.-Not chess!-I am not an animal-I win!-ow!-Fuck this!-Check-how dare you!-ow, dammit!**_

"It sounds like half a conversation." Romanoff said, and Steve gave her a puzzled look. "It sounds like she's talking to someone, but we can only hear her end of the conversation, like when you're on the phone."

"But how is this important?" Thor asked. "Her dreams cannot be related to the possibility of her being a werewolf."

"Maybe they are. Have you ever met a werewolf before? It's not like we know. Besides, this line, _I am not an animal_ sounds like something an in-denial wolf girl might say, right?" Stark said, frowning at the list. "I think we should just go ask the kid. We could take her, even if she is a werewolf."

"But if she's a werewolf, then wouldn't she, like, have hair on the palms of her hands or really like raw meat or something? I mean, we might not have to ask, just look at her." Banner said from the other side of the room. He had just come in.

"Either way, we'll still have to talk to her. But Ms. McCartney probably wouldn't be thrilled with us questioning Dria. We'll have to approach her while she's away from the home."

 _September fifth, 2015_

 _Jefferson High_

I pushed open the front doors of my school and stormed down the front steps. I felt the eyes of the other kids on me-everyone knew I was the kid who had been in jail. I was the kid who was suspected of murder. They wouldn't get anywhere near me. Maybe it was best that way.

"Dria Lane?" A woman with red hair and wearing a black body suit had popped out of nowhere with a light-brown haired man in normal clothes, but with a red-white-and-blue shield on his back. They were walking alongside me down the street. I didn't bother stopping, they seemed fine to walk with me.

"Yeah. Who the hell are you?" I asked, mentally wincing at the swearing. I had forgotten to stop swearing around adults the way I usually did. _They'd figure out you're a monster sooner or later anyway._ The wolf muttered. _Shut up,_ I told him.

"Agent Natasha Romanoff, of SHIELD." The red-haired woman said.

"Steve Rogers, SHIELD."

"Did the guy with the eye patch send you? What was his name? Rage? Anger? Pissed? Something like that." I eyed them suspiciously, but tried to act casual, walking with my hands in the pockets of my hoodie and not slowing.

"Fury? He's already talked to you?" Romanoff exchanged a glance with Steve Rogers.

"Yeah, he did. Look, what's this about? I already answered his questions. You can just ask him."

"Actually, we can't. Stop walking, this is important." Romanoff caught my arm and I reluctantly swung around to face them. " _Are you a werewolf?_ "

I felt my blood freeze. Time slowed down. How had they known? How had they known? I knew I was on the verge of panic, and had to clamp my mouth shut again. I took a deep breath. Have to control the wolf, stay calm. I twisted my arm and pulled it free from her grip, turning and running. I heard the voice of the wolf inside my head.

 _A werewolf! Ha! I told you that somebody would figure it out. Let me help you. You need me to escape._ I pushed him back. _I don't need you._

I was running as fast as I could, dropping my backpack to go faster. I skidded around a corner and down an alley, dodging a group of kids going the opposite direction and leaping over a fallen trash can. I heard the agents of SHIELD behind me shout at the kids to move, but I had gained a few more feet on them.

I turned through the streets, ignoring honking cars and people shouting, running through traffic and past buildings. I turned sharply into an alley and scrambled up a fire escape to the roof, panting, struggling to breath, my heart in my throat. I fell to my knees on the roof, gasping for breath.

I struggled to a stand and stumbled to the edge of the five-story-high rooftop. I didn't see the agents of SHIELD, and for one beautiful second I thought I had escaped. Then there was the roar of engines behind me, and I spun around. A man in a hot-rod red and gold metal suit was flying towards me, one hand raised, a glowing rocket pointed at my head. "Kid, stop."

"Leave me alone!" I screamed.

Another guy, with long blond hair, armor, a long red cape, and a big metal war hammer landed on the corner of the roof. "Child, stand down. We do not wish to harm you."

I panted, trying to think. Surrounded. Cornered. Couldn't go backward, I would fall. Couldn't go forward, I was no match for these guys. Maybe I could turn around and head back down the fire escape, but I saw Romanoff and Rogers emerging onto the roof. I hadn't lost them after all.

"Leave me alone." I repeated, holding out my hands in a _hold on_ gesture. "Let me go now, and I won't even press charges. Sound fair?"

"Kid, you need to come with us." The metal guy said, landing and walking towards me. He pulled off his helmet, to show his face. He looked familiar, and I thought I might have seen him on TV, but I wasn't sure. "And can I just say, werewolves are, like, seriously cool. Do you think she can really turn into a wolf on the full moon?"

"Yeah." I panted, terrifyingly aware of the fall just a few inches behind me. "I really do."

A guy in dark purple, carrying a bow and arrows, jogs onto the roof through the service door. "Bad traffic?" Steve asks.

"Shut up. I was calling a transport team. We aren't really equipped to hold a werewolf."

"Still here." I said, waving a hand. These people were getting on my nerves. "And I'll give myself up. I don't wanna fight you guys. Though if you keep talking about me like I can't hear you, I seriously will, and it won't be pretty." I walked casually towards them, glad to be away from the edge of the roof. "Handcuffs." I held out my hands.

"No handcuffs." Romanoff said, pushing my hands down.

"Oh. Nice. So, I gotta ask, how'd you figure out I was a werewolf? Fifteen years and you're the only ones." I was honestly curious. I didn't know how they'd found out but it scared me. That was a secret that I had to keep.

"We're not at liberty to say."

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 ***Beam me up, Scotty!***


	5. Nightmares and Monsters

**AN: hi, F here. Thanks to everyone who favorited/followed this story! I really appreciate it, you're super nice. I don't own the Avengers. Please leave a review.**

 _September sixth, 2015_

 _Avengers Tower_

I was sleeping.

In my dreams, I was always somewhere unusual, I was always wearing clothes specific to the place, and there was always some sort of challenge. When I was awake I fought the wolf with my mind. When I was asleep I fought him in other ways. Whenever I was on the platform in the clouds, I was barefoot in a white dress. That was where we played chess. In the roman coliseum I wore leggings and a beige tunic, with a sword and shield. That was where we duelled. Once I had even been in a castle, wearing a deep red ball gown, and I had to find the wolf in the enormous castle. They were all challenges.

But last night I had been somewhere new-a clearing in the woods by an old-timey village. Ladies in gowns and men in armor and suits sat on stands to the left of the field. But they weren't normal people-they were ghostly and ragged-looking, and you could almost see through them. Their eyes were pitch black, and their faces deadly pale. They were ghosts. I looked away quickly-they were designed to distract me.

I was sitting on a pure white stallion, wearing a set of white-and-gold armor, and I held a long pointy pole in one hand. Sitting on a pure black mare across the clearing from me was the wolf, wearing a purple and black set of armor and carrying a long pointed pole just like mine.

"What are we-" I yelled to the wolf, hoping for an explanation, but he was charging me with his pole pointed at my chest. I rolled to the side and nearly fell of my horse, but the white stallion turned and just barely kept me on his back. "Good boy." I said. At least I think a stallion's a boy-I'm not really a horse person.

The stallion didn't seem to need much direction from me. It cantered to the other side of the clearing while the wolf turned his mare around, so that we were facing each other again. The stallion reared and the two horses raced towards each other. On instinct I raised my pointed pole and aimed it at the wolf's chest as he passed. The point clanged off his dark armor, and the pain that shot up my hand made my drop the spear-thing.

"Be more careful with your lance, child." The wolf sneered. I swung my leg off my horse and fell onto the hard grassy ground, twisting my ankle wrong. It felt like I had stuck my leg in a vat of m _olten lava._ I screamed and struggled to crawl forward to grab my lance. I screamed again as the wolf's lance grazed my shoulder. My fingers wrapped around the lance, but I was too weak even to lift it.

The wolf bellowed in triumph, but just before he could strike me dead, someone yelled, "Kid, wake up!" It sounded like Stark. Suddenly my vision blurred and I was floating upward, towards the sky. I could feel my injures healing themselves, and the Wolf cursing as he stabbed his lance into the ground where I had been a moment before.

"Dria, wake up! It's just a nightmare!" That sounded like Rogers. I was waking up in my sort-of-a-room-sort-of-a-holding-cell in the Avengers tower, in bed. The Avengers themselves were crowded around my bed, wearing pajamas and carrying their weapons.

"What-where-what just-" I gasped. My ankle and shoulder were healed. It had just been a dream. Had the wolf killed me, I would be dead, but mere injuries healed when I woke up after the dreams. "Did I wake you up?"

"Hell yes, kid!" Stark said. "It's, like, two in the morning! What is your problem!"

"Sorry, I-I was having a nightmare. I'm sorry I woke you up, I didn't mean to-" What had I said? What had they heard? This was so embarrassing.

"It's fine." Banner said, in a surprisingly soft tone. He gave Stark a reproachful look. "Go back to sleep." He led the other Avengers out of my holding cell/bedroom. Why had he been so nice? I climbed out of bed and tiptoed to the door, leaning against it to hear what they were saying.

"Why are you being so nice to her? She's a werewolf that ate her own best friend!" A lump formed in my throat. That was Stark's voice.

"That kid has been through enough. She's a _werewolf._ She's a _monster_ , that's the sort of thing I tend to understand. She's got enough crap to deal with, we don't need to add you to the list. Didn't you read her file? She spent a _year in prison_ after her _best friend died_ , so give her a break, alright?"

There was some muttering from Stark, and a question from Rogers. I couldn't hear it fully, but it sounded like, "monster like you?"

"I used to have nightmares after the other guy came around." Banner snapped. "Nasty ones. I know what it's like to be a monster. It sucks, and she's fifteen, so cut her some slack. It's not her fault she had a nightmare."

I turned and climbed back into bed, trying not to smile. Dr. Banner was a monster like me. Maybe not all agents of SHIELD were so bad-I was actually coming to like him. I pulled the blanket up over my shoulders and closed my eyes. But I wouldn't get back to sleep that night.

 **Sorry that chapter's so short compared to the others, and that there's not a whole lot going on, I just really wanted to write it.**

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